The launch of Christian Dior's New Look in 1947 marked the beginning of a momentous decade in fashion history, one that Dior himself called the 'golden age'. Celebrating the end of war and the birth of a new era, it set a standard for dressmaking and high fashion that has rarely been surpassed.

In Paris, couture houses such as Balenciaga, Balmain and Fath attracted worldwide attention for elegance and glamour. London was renowned for formal state gowns by court dressmakers and impeccable tailoring by designers like Hardy Amies.

The production of couture was important to the prestige and economy of both France and Britain. While traditionally catering for wealthy private clients, the couture houses also sought new markets. As the decade progressed, they created perfumes, opened boutiques and licensed their designs to foreign manufacturers. By the late 1950s, the leading couture houses had become global brands.

Lee Miller (1907 – 1977) is one of the most remarkable female icons of the 20th century – an individual admired as much for her free-spirit, creativity and intelligence as for her classical beauty. Charting her transformation from muse to ground-breaking artist, this centenary exhibition provides a unique exploration of her life and unprecedented career as a photographer.

Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Miller began her modelling career on the cover of American 'Vogue' before meeting Man Ray in Paris in 1929. She became both his lover and muse and under his guidance started to produce her own imagery.

A woman and girl walk alongside Doris Salcedo's work, Shibboleth – a giant crack in the floor of the Tate Modern in London October 8, 2007. Colombian artist Doris Salcedo has filled Tate Modern's cavernous Turbine Hall with a hole as the latest work in the art gallery's annual installation series. Dubbed Shibboleth after the biblical massacre of the same name, the work is a trench dug into the concrete floor of the former power station and running its entire 167 metres length starting as a crack and ending as a chasm (source: ABC News).

At the Tate press conference launching her project on October 8 2007 Doris Salcedo refused to spell out how the chasm was built, preferring to underline her message about its meaning: "It's about the experience of being a third world person, here, now, in London."

Tate is the place to explore this, she asserts. "It's the perfect place to bring these issues out into the open, to experience the role art plays in all this. The history of western art has created stereotypes…created a European view of art," asserted Salcedo.

It's a provocative position, informed by Salcedo's interest in radical art politics and heroes of the past like Joseph Beuys. Making a massive and possibly dangerous change to the fabric of the nation's most popular modern art gallery is also risky. Tate's Nicholas Serota, also present at the launch, explained his worries about the project.

"Our first thoughts were – could we realise it? It was by no means straightforward. Could we build it? Wouldn't it damage Tate Modern? It's the floor of the Turbine Hall broken open, after all. Once it's over, a scar will remain, and both we, and subsequent artists, will have to walk over it." (source: 24 Hour Museum)